And just like that I feel out of date. “Her Britannic Majesty’s principal Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, requests and requires in the name of Her Majesty…”
All very well except that now there’s a King. There’s no European Union anymore on the new blue British passport and so it goes. The money will change, postage stamps will change and the national anthem has changed of course. Done and dusted. A reminder that nothing lasts, not even a 96 year old Queen. The Elizabethan era into which I was born is gone.
I’m hoping two year old GANNET2 lasts a bit longer. We dropped the van off at the suitably named “Promasters Only” for some upgrades and a general mechanical check.
At first sight I wondered if we would fit inside so as we waited for the shop to open I got the tape measure out. It showed about 9’8” and I was pretty sure we’d have two inches to spare. We need 9’6” (2.90 meters) to clear the top of the air conditioner.
And so it was.
Kip Amore has been a voice of mechanical reason online where the Promaster Owners Forum is filled with angry negative voices tearing down the front wheel drive van.
When he opened a shop earlier this year repairing only Promasters (the hint is in the name),I got in touch and made an appointment for 9am on Thursday. We were there at 7:45 so Rusty and I went for a walk to get acquainted with Barberton. Kip is a funny guy but very sensible when it comes to these vans.
He used them to make expedited parcel deliveries, a service that has come into existence after I was driving full sized trucks around the San Francisco area in the 1990s. His oldest Promaster has 760,000 miles on it driven hither and yon making deliveries. That gives me a goal!
Kip has a sense of humor and a philosophy that appeals to me. Talking to him I felt very reassured about my choice of house on wheels. He is a big fan of the durability and simplicity of Promasters which he points out use mechanical parts found in Jeeps and Dodge minivans since 2007. They are easy to work on and I live in hope that if we need help on the road in South America we will find it. Oddly enough Jeep and Dodge dealers are everywhere. An engine hanging out in the shop:
Kip is checking the van out from front to back and is installing a couple of upgrades, a metal oil cooler to replace the plastic factory part that can leak. Apparently he has only one and saved it for me. More are supposed to be delivered soon…
His able assistant Lincoln got to work taking off the wheels to replace the sealed factory universal joints with new after market parts that are tough enough to last forever but only if I grease them regularly and frequently. They will need regular lubrication with a grease gun so I imagine that will be my job groveling under the van every 5,000 miles when we change the oil.
Rusty managed to impress everyone with his laidback outlook. “One chill dog.” I pointed out if we die in this South American endeavor there are many people lined up to look after Rusty. He’s not going back on the street.
Prior Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance according to the US military and it’s an adage I have tried to live by. As Kip put it if you’ve done everything you can to prepare and if you’ve kept up with the maintenance and something still goes wrong - and it will!- you can at least reassure yourself you did everything you could.
The journey from here to Tierra Del Fuego goes through Key West and back to Mexico on our way south. I will travel reassured that GANNET2 with 52,000 miles on the clock will be ready for a fresh start on the road.
A new beginning indeed.
3 comments:
Encouraging that a person with this prevention-based philosophy can survive as a business. I think you did well contacting him and getting in the queue.
Wow, 52K miles in only two years! You’ve done a lot of traveling.
Much more to come. I love driving the Promaster. We have covered 20,000 miles in the last ten months 11,000 of those over the winter in Mexico.
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